Unpalatable as the prospect might be after the third weekend of a new season, it is hard to shake the concerns that Hull City are a club flirting with crisis.

A stoppage time defeat to QPR was depressing enough but added to the drip, drip, drip of bad news and head coach Leonid Slutsky suddenly found himself being asked if quitting was an option under consideration.

“I continue fighting and we will get stronger,” said City’s defiant head coach.

“In Russia we say, ‘If we not die, we will be stronger’, that is my principle and I think we will change our situation. I have a lot of power for fighting.”

You suspect Slutsky will need every ounce. Ten weeks after being handed the challenge of reviving a club relegated from the Premier League in May, the Russian’s natural optimism is being suffocated by damaging events beyond his control.

The smile worn throughout his introductions in July was nowhere to be seen in a cold post-mortem at Loftus Road.

Slutsky has already decided this ranks as the most challenging spell of his career. For a man who once spent 12 months in a Soviet hospital after falling out of a tree trying to rescue a cat, it is some claim.

Back then it was a shattered patella for a teenage Slutsky but now it feels like broken promises. Despite repeated assertions that the “supermarket was closed” at the KCOM Stadium, the doors have swung back open with the impending sale of Sam Clucas.

The money banked might represent sound business for a player that cost £1.3m two years ago but Slutsky can take little comfort from the balance sheets.

Sam Clucas of Hull City (Image: Focus)

City no longer have a squad capable of competing at the top end of the Championship.

Giving the green light for Clucas to join an exodus like no other came at the end of a week that saw Abel Hernandez lost for six months with a ruptured Achilles.

Markus Henriksen is another holed up in the treatment room and now they must make room for Kevin Stewart and Fraizer Campbell. The extent of the injuries sustained at Loftus Road is unclear but Slutsky has been left with a skeletal squad for tomorrow’s League Cup second round tie at Doncaster Rovers.

At least Ehab Allam saw City’s sorry plight for himself at Loftus Road. Making a rare appearance in the directors’ box, the club’s vice chairman could not ignore the fault-lines opening up in Slutsky’s squad.

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QPR v Hull City

The Tigers have again left themselves with 10 days to save a season and, galling as it might have been, a late defeat to QPR illustrated that point perfectly.

Without convincing options to call upon off the bench, another burst of injury misfortune left City and Slutsky unable to hang on for a victory they held in the palm of their hand.

This was not Wolves, either. If supporters had been consoling themselves that a narrow midweek defeat to the division’s big spenders had its merits, losing to a limited QPR side offered no such comfort. Ian Holloway’s side were spirited but did not resemble a promotion candidate.

“I thought we deserved a draw as a minimum,” said Slutsky. “It is a very bad result. It is really a very difficult time but we must be stronger and continue working hard.”

The 4-1 win over Burton Albion that had given Slutsky his first victory in English football felt like it belonged to another season as the head coach picked out the bones of a second defeat in four days.

Adama Diomande of Hull City during the Championship match at Loftus Road (Image: Liam McAvoy)

Even with all the adversity, the injuries and uncertainty of a build-up that saw Clucas sat stony-faced in his tracksuit ahead of kick-off, City should have returned home with something. Perhaps even a first away in 20 league games.

A tight first half began with Kevin Stewart limping off after just nine minutes of his debut with a recurrence of his ankle injury and ended with Fraizer Campbell joining the long list of absentees, but in between the rotten luck there was a lead given to City by Jarrod Bowen.

David Meyler’s deep, curling cross caused panic at the back post and Bowen’s persistence allowed him to get the better of Kazenga LuaLua and shoot low beneath Alex Smithies for his second goal of the season.

QPR should have already been in front when Luke Freeman dragged wide from Conor Washington’s pull-back but City’s defence was otherwise in full control.

Jarrod Bowen of Hull City

The two Michaels, Dawson and Hector, kept the Tigers tight and encouraged frustrations to grow in the stands. Campbell’s failure to emerge for the second half revealed City’s lack of depth and decisively altered the contest.

Rather than turning to one of his untested youngsters in a support role for the early sub Adama Diomande, Slutsky opted to use a three-man defence he said had never been used on the training ground by handing Ondrej Mazuch his chance.

The tactical change made City an inviting target. Threats came on the counter in the second half but for long spells QPR kept on coming like a rolling tide.

Not until Matt Smith was introduced as a targetman did the home team finally bump their guests out of the comfort zone and the substitute was the source of an equaliser.

Twice Smith had threatened with headers before he timed his run smartly to meet Freeman’s cross with a firm header past the largely unworked Allan McGregor.

Disappointed looking captain Michael Dawson of Hull City at the final whistle against QPR (Image: Focus)

QPR sensed a winner and gave City chances of their own. Bowen missed the target before Seb Larsson was denied by Smithies and the cost of those spurned opportunities soon became clear.

A long ball opened up City with Washington chipping over McGregor and when Hector was bundled aside, Idrissa Sylla was left with a far easier chance than the one he had struck against the post with his first touch.

City still should have escaped with a point when somehow missing the chance to profit from a goalmouth scramble but the result matched a bleak mood consuming Slutsky and his sympathetic supporters.

A long season awaits on the fresh evidence submitted over the last week.